A Review of “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center”
Jessica Arizaga
DePaul University
A Review of “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center” bell hooks’ second book, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, was published in 1984. It is one of her more widely known works, pushing her into the forefront as a leading voice between second and third-wave feminism. Third-wave feminism theory is inclusive of elements of anti-racism, lesbian theory, and women-of-color consciousness, brought upon as a criticism of the second-wave; which highlighted upper-middle class white women’s issues and projected them onto the whole mass without consideration of minority experiences. hooks’ novel is reflective of this and incorporates these subjects paying specific attention to the ethnic minority experience of feminism. She does this in order to raise awareness of groups marginalized within feminism, arguing that they should in fact be at the center of the movement. bell hooks was the pen name taken by Gloria Jean Watkins. Her work focuses on the intersection of gender, race, and class- emphasizing the impossibility of eradicating one without dismantling the others. She is a self-proclaimed black feminist critic of “white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy.” Her work includes dozens of well-known novels and a plethora of scholarly articles. Her immediate family life and experiences growing up in Kentucky shaped her life perspective from which she writes. She encountered and
bell hook is a famous feminist author who wrote the book “Feminism Is For Everybody” hooks attempt to create a quick, simple start on feminist history, theory, and politics to the masses who receive a misinformation, misunderstood, and maligned version of the feminist movement. Hooks says “To understand feminism it implies one has to necessarily understand sexism”.We define feminism as the advocacy of women 's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.Where she simply define and shows that being feminism does not mean women have to become mean or they are better than men,she simply saying that men and women need to be equal like the civil right movements. The book begins with a brief statement of feminist political positions, then discusses some history of the movement.She discusses the change in the movement from personal to groups where women have close relationships with one another and began to feel personally empowered by their participation in the establishment of large, and how some women feel like they are working for the high middle-class women.Every single time it doesn’t matter you a women or men, you will always have someone in the higher level than you.hooks feel like it will very exciting for the women who have the power to work with other so they could build each other up..Hooks views the formation of large women’s organizations as the beginning of a stage where the movement took on the role of
In her essay entitled Teaching the New Worlds/ New Words, bell hooks focuses on exploring and illuminating the close link between language and oppression from a feminist perspective. Recording that language is a self-imposing kaleidoscope of productive challenges and assistances that is impossible to bond or repress; she suggests that trying to circumscribe, it according to their interest is precisely what oppressors do with it. Hooks adresses African-Americans’ relationship to the Standard English as a reality more than a mere case study, and illuminating that how their native language, their most immense mean of bonding to each other had been taken away from them and
Finally, hooks used the strategy of cause and effect in her writings. She writes “Since our society continues to be a primarily ‘Christian’ culture, masses of people continue to believe that God has ordained that women be subordinate to men in the domestic household.” (hooks, pg2) By writing this, she effectively analyzes the cause of the problems, and why our culture continues to be sexist. For those who have scientific minds, this statement carries
bell hooks gains the power and credibility of her audience through knowledge of the topic at hand, establishing peace with the reader, and demonstrating honesty. Ethos shows an audience that the writer is credible, or expert in the subject of the agreement. bell hooks is widely known for being a writer, feminist thinker, and her academic background. She establishes her credentials through her personal struggles with understanding social class during adolescent. The reader gains respect for hooks as she takes the audience back to a time where they may have desired something, but never attained. For example she says, “As a child, [she] often wanted things money could buy that [her] parents could not afford and would not get”(hooks, 138). bell hooks writes to not only help others find strength to hold on to their desires, but to show how
bell hooks Plantation Paratricay can be describes as a black feminist narrative that interrogates the ideas of colonialism, gender, race, class and the effects of socialized behaviors on the black community. The article continuously problematizes the black women's experience in relation to the black man, herself and white society. Though her views can be interpreted as a deconstruction of the black family structure and the black man, she has continuously brought the focus of her concepts back to the black women and her experience. Which in turn, takes her article from being viewed as just a black feminist piece to a womenist piece because its roots are constantly being drawn back to the sexual and general oppression of the black women.
Bell Hooks was born Gloria Watkins on September 25, 1952. She grew up in a small Southern community that gave her a sense of belonging as well as a sense of racial separation. She has degrees from Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. She has served as a noted activist and social critic and has taught at numerous colleges. Hooks uses her great-grandmother's name to write under as a tribute to her ancestors.
Through this book, the most important point she puts emphasis on is the acknowledgment of the complex interlocking of classism, racism and sexism. Bell Hooks is not a poor working-class any more,
It is easy to dismiss people either as too detached from the subject or as attention seeking, and this has been too common when anyone talks about any of the disenfranchised. bell hooks has approached the misrepresentation of the poor in a way most people either have not or cannot. By sharing parts of her life, she is connecting with the reader in such an intimate way that it is difficult to dismiss her. The reader knows that she has struggled to get to where she is now, and the reader knows that there are many who have worked hard and are still impoverished. Before the reader finishes the essay, he or she knows that not all poor people are lazy, witless degenerates. In conclusion, it is through the sympathetic bond that she created that the reader is able to fully understand
In 1992, Bell Hooks published “Aint I a Woman” after working on it for several years. “Aint I a Woman” is a book detailing the lives of Black women in America from Slavery to the present and their relation to feminism. Hooks felt that there was an absence of books about the African American woman that were available. While there were books about individual African American women and their experiences in the oppressive American system, she believed that those women’s stories could not be generalized for all African American women. It was necessary to have a book at this time that acknowledged not black women and the two types of oppressions they experienced that formed their present status in America. Bell was encouraged by her peers to write this well needed book. She was especially motivated by the views that others had toward black women at the time:
bell hooks, renowned black feminist and cultural critic criticizes the lack of racial awareness in her essay, Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination (1992). ‘bell hooks’ is written in lower case to convey that the substance of her work reigns more important than the writer. From a marginalized perspective, hooks argues that sites of dominance, not otherness is problematic and critiques the lack of attention that white scholars pay to the representation of whiteness in the black imagination. Critical feminist scholars Peggy McIntosh and Ruth Frankenberg identify their own whiteness as a dominant discourse, but share a critical departure from hooks with the notion of whiteness as terror. hooks aim is not to reverse racism, but discuss her position to authentically inform readers about how she experiences racism. Furthermore, systems of oppression are manufactured by human thought and thus the site of the Other is always produced as a site of difference. Gender, race, sex, class, disability, and geography are situated differently in social structure, but dominant groups assume they share the same reality though they cannot experience it. In consequence, the Other cannot hold a singularized identity of their own and the binary structure succeeds in containing racialized bodies in place. What happens to those bodies when they cross boundaries of the binary? hooks recounts being routinely disciplined back into place when crossing the border; however, dominant white
Bone Black is a memoir detailing a “girlhood” beset with racial segregation. bell hooks’ struggle for autonomy involves a struggle with racism, gender,
Within the excerpts of writing Sheryl Sandberg and bell hooks offer us, their focal point is feminism. Although this is the case, their reasonings for being a feminist are quite different. Sandberg focuses on rising in the career field as a woman, and hooks argues against her writing because she has a narrow definition of being a feminist. There are strong arguments for either side as to which is more correct.
Hooks asserts how stereotypes about African-American women are plagued within the feminist system, as many women of color endure a form of
In Feminist Theory: from margin to center, bell hook states on the first page what she believes to be the problem with feminism. In her opinion the biggest problem with feminism is that there is no real definition of what feminism is. The definition many people have formulated for feminism is having the goal of making woman socially equal to men. hook’s problem with this is the fact that all men are not socially equal. If women are to be the social equals to men then another question would be which men women will be socially equal to. While many white middle and upper class women accept this definition, the lower socioeconomic classes can not because it does not take race and its disadvantages
Feminist theory analyzes the gender inequality that women have faced throughout the years due to a patriarchal society. Women were expected to fit the traditional female and conform to the gender norms that society has constructed. According to A Brief Introduction to Critical Theory, “Feminism embodies a way of reading that investigates the text’s investment in or reaction to the patriarchal power structures that have dominated Western culture” (227). Patriarchal power has oppressed women economically, socially, and politically. Women were associated more with domesticity than with politics and financial situations. They were not provided the same educational opportunities as men. These issues have been addressed by people, such as Mary